Today’s Raging Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
On Armistice Day, November 11, 1940, the Midwest region of the United States was hit by a terrifying storm, reminiscent of the historic gales of 1913 that had wreaked havoc on the Great Lakes. On shore, raging winds toppled church steeples, telephone lines and rooftops and brought driving snow to Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan. Further south, it stranded hundreds of duck hunters along the shores of the Mississippi River and was blamed for 144 deaths.
Duck Hunters in Minnesota
On the water, Lake Michigan bore the brunt with winds reaching as high as 124 mph. All over the lake, vessels were in trouble. On the east shore at Ludington, the car ferry City of Flint 32 was blown ashore, while a nearby fish tug Three Brothersmanaged to save seventeen men aboard the doomed Navadoc. The freighter Frank J. Peterson was beached at Hog Island, while another freighter, the Navadoc, went aground off Naubinway at the northern tip of the lake.
Among the worst disasters were the complete loss of both the 380-foot steamship Anna C. Minch and the 420-foot steel freighter William B. Davock. All hands perished – 24 on the Minch and 32 on the Davock. The Minch was found a mile and a half south of the pier at Pentwater with her mast still above water. Bodies from both ships washed up along the shore near Pentwater and Ludington, leading some to speculate that they had collided.
A view from the car ferry City of Flint 32
In all, 59 sailors, mainly on Lake Michigan, were lost. Because November had always been a dangerous month for shipping on the Great Lakes, the storms were given the nickname “Witches of November”.
Culled from: Disaster Great Lakes
Car Crash Du Jour!
Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak is an album and booklet by Negativland. The band describes the project as “a 6 by 12 inch 64-page full-color book which comes with a 45-minute CD soundtrack.” I’m not interested in the band Negativland, but I own a copy of this objet d’art macabre because car crashes are fascinating… and this is very similar to a project I wanted to do years ago but never got around to completing (nothing new there). What they did was go to junkyards and look for notes left behind in the smashed cars and display them together. Of course. you’re left wondering – did the person who wrote the note or for whom the note was intended live or die? I have no answers… but speculating can be its own entertainment, and so I present to you this entry.
What do you think? Fatal or no?
The Wreckage:
The Note found within:
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
and a wave broke over the railing.
And ev’ry man knew, as the captain did too
’twas the witch of November come stealin’.
From “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” of course; the saddest song on earth.